Senior Legal Counsel, CTO Office

Lenovo is seeking a talented and dynamic senior legal counsel to support Lenovo's Chief Technology Officer organization (CTOO), which serves as Lenovo's innovation laboratory for enterprise AI, hybrid AI platforms, and next-generation technology development. The position will report to the Vice President of Intellectual Property and Litigation and engage directly with CTO executives, researchers, engineers, product leaders, and their teams.

This role is intended for a lawyer who can operate as an embedded business and technology advisor, helping teams move from early-stage research and incubation through platform development, commercialization, ecosystem partnerships, and responsible deployment.

Preferred location is Morrisville, NC or Chicago, IL, but remote candidates may be considered.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic legal advice and counsel to global business teams in areas such as enterprise AI agents, model and agent platforms, strategic alliances, university collaborations, technology innovation labs, product development, M&A, complex transactions, and regulatory compliance
• Help CTOO teams identify and manage legal issues arising through the development pipeline
• Act as an interface and liaison to the CTOO for other corporate legal functions such as litigation, AI governance, IP, ethics and compliance, data privacy, marketing, contracting center of excellence and government relations as well as regional legal teams
• Maintain knowledge and understand the mechanics and economics of technology innovation laboratories, AI software platforms, ecosystem partnerships, and electronics manufacturing companies
• Provide proactive advice, flagging areas of risk and offering opinions on business and legal issues in order to help business owners achieve desired results
• Serve as a trusted business advisor and team member pursuing key global business initiatives

Qualifications:

• JD from a top tier law school; strong academic credentials preferred
• 10+ years of law firm and/or in-house experience, ideally supporting technology, software, AI, data, infrastructure, or electronics businesses
• Business, technical product, software, AI/ML, data platform, or engineering-adjacent background strongly preferred
• Possess knowledge on a variety of legal topics relevant to a technology business, including IP, commercial contract negotiations, software, licensing, open source, data rights, privacy, cybersecurity, AI governance, regulatory, complex transactions and alliances
• Ability to balance risk allocation and develop pragmatic mitigation strategies for fast-moving R&D, incubation, and commercialization efforts
• Strong and confident communication skills, with the ability to advocate legal positions and simplify complex legal and technology issues into coherent, actionable business requirements
• Experience advising senior executives of a large multinational corporation on strategic technology initiatives
• Excellent collaboration, project facilitation and negotiation skills, including the ability to work across legal, engineering, product, privacy, security, IP, policy, and regional teams
• Curiosity and willingness to learn and get involved with a variety of legal issues
• Experience engaging with colleagues and clients globally preferred, including comfort with cross-border collaboration
• Combination of in-house and outside counsel experience preferred; experience with strategic alliances, university or research collaborations, standards bodies, or technology ecosystem partnerships a plus
• Experience working in an R&D organization preferred